    [Patent document 1] JP-2004-252760 A    [Patent document 2] JP-2009-176432 A (US 2009/0183978 A1)
In recent vehicles, there is existing an input apparatus including (i) a display device located in front of a driver and (ii) a remote manipulation device located separate from the display device. The display device has a screen containing several selection regions (command switches). A manipulation of the remote manipulation device enables a selection of one of the several selection regions using a cursor or pointer and a determination input to the selected region (Patent document 1). In such a manipulation input apparatus, the remote manipulation device may be arranged preferably in a position within reach of a hand of the driver such as a side of the driver's seat. For example, for the driver to perform a touch typing without seeing switches or the like, it is possible for the driver to manipulate while maintaining a posture for driving operation, thus providing an advantage in usability.
In contrast, a recent in-vehicle instrument provides varieties of functions. To use those functions efficiently, there is adopted a composite manipulation device. The composite manipulation device realizes several manipulation manners such as a rotating manipulation manner, a tilting manipulation manner, a two-dimensional sliding manipulation manner, and a pushing manipulation manner collectively in a single device body. For instance, one of the manipulation manners is used to select one of the several selection regions (command switches) drawn on the screen. Then, another manipulation manner is used to execute a parameter change associated with the selected selection region. Various manipulations for setup or execution are available for the varieties of functions (Patent document 2).
When adopting such a composite manipulation device, the following becomes a problem to be solved. That is, it is not easy to intuitively recognize an association between a display on the screen and a manipulation manner in the composite manipulation device. For instance, the screen may contain four manipulation images (i.e., four selection regions), which are located respectively in a right upper portion, a left upper portion, a left lower portion, and a right lower portion, with respect to a center of the screen. In other words, four manipulation images are located with respect to the center of the screen, in a circular order (hereinafter, referred to as a crisscross/circular arrangement). Such a crisscross/circular arrangement of the manipulation images may cause a user to recognize either a tilting manipulation manner from the crisscross arrangement, or a rotating manipulation manner from the circular arrangement. This makes it difficult for the user to use which of the two manipulation manners to select a manipulation image. In contrast, even if seeing the composite manipulation device, there is no teaching which of the two manipulation manners to select a manipulation image. As a result, the user may be confused in selecting a suitable manipulation manner, posing a problem in usability.